A GEEK’S GUIDE TO PROMOTING YOURSELF AND YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS IN 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS WITH TWITTER BY iv Introduc t i o n A Geek’s Guide To Promoting Yourself and Your Online Business in 140 Characters or Less with Twitter ISBN-10: 0967754666 ISBN-13: 978-0-9677546-6-6 Copyrighted material. All Rights reserved. No reproduction, reselling, reprinting, or republishing, in whole or in part, is permitted. There is no warranty as to the accuracy of the material contained herein and it may not be relied upon for any purpose. THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DESCRIBED IN THIS EBOOK ARE FOR EDUCATIONAL AND INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. ANY EXAMPLES AND ADVICE GIVEN IN THIS EBOOK SHOULD NOT TO BE CONSTRUED TO GUARANTY ECONOMIC SUCCESS. DUE TO MANY VARIABLE RISKS, YOU MUST MAKE YOUR OWN INDEPENDENT JUDGMENT AS TO THE VIABILITY OF ANY BUSINESS TRANSACTION. EVEN IF YOU FOLLOW THE ADVICE GIVEN IN THIS EBOOK, YOU MAY NOT MAKE ANY MONEY AND INDEED, MAY SUFFER LOSSES. Photo credits: Page ii, istock © fotosipsak; page 1, istock © Lammeyer; page 13, istock © snapphoto; page 24, istock © VikaValter; page 41, istock © erikreis. Book design: DesignForBooks.com © C O P Y R I G H T 2 0 1 0 N E W M E D I A E N T E R T A I N M E N T L T D v What is Tw i t t e r ? contents Introduction What is Twitter? 2 Becoming a Tweeter 3 1 Why You Need to Join Twitter Right Now 4 140 Characters or Less 4 So why do you need to join? 5 Promoting Your Twitter Prole 9 Getting your own unique badge 10 Getting people to follow you 11 Follow other people 12 2 How to Use Twitter as a Mini Blog 16 What’s the dierence between a blog and ‘twittering’? 16 Writing great tweets 18 Will Twitter Replace Blogs as We Know Them? 21 vi Introduc t i o n How to Use Twitter in Conjunction with Your Blog 22 3 Using Twitter to Enhance Your Online Business 26 Using Twitter as a Business Tool 27 Branding your business on Twitter 28 Generating Trac 29 Using Twitter as a Linking Tool 32 Play the Long Game 33 4 Twitter Tools 34 What are Twitter Tools 34 Making the Most of Your Twitter Tools 40 Conclusion 42 Get Twittering! 42 How will you use Twitter? 44 contents 1 What is Tw i t t e r ? 2 Introduc t i o n WHAT IS TWITTER? Perhaps the question should really be—do you twitter? And if you don’t you soon will do. This guide is going to show you exactly what Twitter is all about, and how to make the most of it. You may well have heard of it before, but you may not have realized just how useful it can be when it comes to spreading the word about your business online. Twitter is based around a very simple concept, and once you’ve grasped that concept you’ll be well away. Some people reckon Twitter is too limited in its uses, but it’s the very fact that you are limited in what you can do that makes it a very creative medium to work in. Twitter is based on one question, pure and simple: “What are you doing now?” All you have to do is tell as many people as possible what the answer to that question is. introduction 3 What is Tw i t t e r ? Becoming a Tweeter This book will reveal all you need to know to use Twitter to boost your prole and your business. Every message—or ‘tweet’—that you send out has the potential to reach even more people. You’ll gain followers and an audience that is all your own. And you’ll be in good company when you join and become a ‘tweeter’. Even Hillary Clinton tweets on a regular basis (or more probably gets an aide to tweet on her behalf). The more you discover about Twitter, the more you will realize that it has been called micro-blogging for a reason. It combines all the best parts of blogging with the best bits of getting in touch with people. And when it is used properly it can become one of the best marketing tools in your online armory. So what are we hanging around in the introduction for? It’s time we got down to business in Section One and found out why you absolutely must join Twitter. 4 Sec t i o n 1 When you visit the Twitter website, you’ll soon see that it’s all about staying in touch. But this isn’t the kind of website that gives you free rein to say whatever you want and spend as long as you like on every post you make. Twitter is all about brevity. It’s all about giving people the basics without bogging them down with the ‘too much information’ syndrome. 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS . . . That’s it—that’s all you’ve got to play with on Twitter each time you want to get in touch with your followers and tell people what’s going on with your business and your life. To put that into some kind of context, the title of an eBay auction can’t be longer than 55 characters so you’ve got less than three times that amount to make an impression on people. You’ll soon nd yourself becoming very adept at using the English language to get in touch in the shortest way possible. 1 Why You Need to Join Twitter Right Now 4 Se ction 1 [...]... connected twitter makes it easy to put yourself and your business in front of the kind of people you want to get in touch with every time you send a fresh tweet it will appear in the public timeline, which is basically a scrolling record of every single tweet sent out by all the members of twitter all over the world there are plenty of other ways to get people to notice your presence on twitter too,... obviously you can use this UrL anywhere you like—if you are telling people about your presence on twitter you can use a clickable link to embed your twitter UrL into the word twitter all someone has to do then is click on the word and they’ll be taken straight to your proile page You can customize your own personal Twitter page to include your own business colors and photo But the website also provides you... intriguing purpose as well 14 Section 1 twitter Blocks give you a virtual map of who you are connected to on twitter So let’s say for example you start following someone If you go onto the twitter Blocks part of the site at http://explore .twitter. com/# you’ll see the option to look at your own twitter block this will show a link from you to the person you are following and then another link (or more)... is by getting to know diferent twitterers and seeing how they do it who catches your attention and why? Make a note of how they do it, start following them and see if you can emulate their techniques you’ll develop your own style over time, but there’s no harm in learning from the people who are already being followed by dozens—if not hundreds—of other people this is a sure sign that they are great twitterers!... to J o i n Tw i t te r R i g h t N ow 5 twitter takes all that worry away instantly you are limited by their 140 characters or less rule, so it’s super speedy to jump on and write a quick sentence to tell people what the latest development is in your business or on your website In fact, you’ll probably have to restrain yourself to keep from posting too often! Twitter makes it easy to put yourself and... customized badges at http:// twitter. com/badges You can have a Flash style widget that either contains you and your friends tweets getting your own unique badge this is easy and it’s well worth doing because it really helps to draw attention to your twitter proile a badge is basically a widget, and you can choose one to blend in with your Blogger based blog, your MySpace account, your Facebook account or your... people to ind and follow you on twitter itself these widgets not only highlight your contributions to your twitter page, they also make it easy for people to follow you—which is what leads to a bigger audience for everything you do and write, both on twitter and elsewhere 10 Section 1 promoting your twitter proile is only one side of the story though Not only do you want to promote it, you also want people... announcing the fact that you’re now on twitter for everyone to ind and post them on your blog and website The more people who know about your tweets, the better the chances are of some of them deciding to follow you another cool tactic is to announce you’re a twitterer at the bottom of all the emails you send out to anyone—even your bank manager hey you never know; he might be a twitterer too the more people... exploring Twitter around unusual and fascinating facts about animals to help attract people who will also be interested in your website, you should start following other people who have a similar interest in animals But how on earth do you ind them? Twitter Blocks these are worth looking at purely for the amazing image you get—but they have a far more intriguing purpose as well 14 Section 1 twitter Blocks... to? Now there’s a thought A great marketing tool this beneit should be obvious by now It might take you a while to get the hang of how to put twitter to good use for boosting your business, but this book will get you much closer than you would if you made the journey on your own Stay tuned for a whole chapter on what twitter can do for your business—including information on how to boost traic to each . your business on Twitter 28 Generating Trac 29 Using Twitter as a Linking Tool 32 Play the Long Game 33 4 Twitter Tools 34 What are Twitter Tools 34 Making. Your Twitter Tools 40 Conclusion 42 Get Twittering! 42 How will you use Twitter? 44 contents 1 What is Tw i t t e r ? 2 Introduc t i o n WHAT IS TWITTER? Perhaps